So seeing Lucely overhear a conversation between her dad and some banker dude (I forget his name) and the possibility of them losing their house is mentioned, I couldn’t even imagine how I would have felt as a child hearing that. My mom really blessed me with that kind of peace of mind, and I know that isn’t the case for everyone. It wasn’t enough for me to think about whether I needed to find a job to help pay the bills, or stop any of my extra curricular activities to save money. I feel like I was very blessed and privileged in that aspect because even though there were times where we were having financial troubles, it was never something that I as a child or adolescent ever felt. It’s such an adult problem that I know I never thought about when I was younger because my mom never wanted me to have to worry about things that I couldn’t control. I mention this in the beginning because one of the topics that Ortega touches on in this novel is the fact that Lucely’s father could end up losing both his business and their house.

To me, it feels like it allows a younger audience to see these topics in a way that makes them think about what they would do if they were in that situation, and just helps to have an open discussion without it feeling so taboo.

But there’s a way that MG novels bring a kind of different nuance to heavier topics.

And this isn’t even a dig at younger readers or anything like that. This was one of the first MG books that I’ve read in a while, and honestly I totally forgot how much MG books could talk about really heavy things in a way that makes younger readers understand it.

The ghost squad book